If the front of your entertainment system looks sharp but the back is a mess of cables, wires, and ports that are all full, you're not alone. Whether you're just interested in cleaning it all up so it's easier to move around back there, or you want to hook up something new (maybe a new game console, perhaps?) but don't have the space, here are some ways to get things organized so you know what you have and can make room for more.

Get the Right Cables

Part of the reason why your cables may all be a mess behind your TV or TV cabinet may be because you're using all the wrong types of cables. It's okay—years of buying the cheapest but most functional cables you can afford will likely lead you to cables of different thicknesses, materials, lengths, and colors. You don't have to run out and buy all new cables (but when they're all super cheap from Monoprice and Amazon, it's probably worth it and won't cost much at all), but you can make a few simple upgrades:

Buy a 90-degree or swivel HDMI coupler. If your TV is mounted to the wall, or close enough to it (or up against the back of an entertainment center), you may be stressing your HDMI cables without even knowing it by forcing them to bend at the neck. A couple of simple couplers will fix the problem, and keep your HDMI cables in a smooth line against the back of your TV. This $3 L-shaped coupler from Monoprice does the trick in most cases (along with these other ones), especially in tight spaces. If you want a bit more flexibility, try this $3 swivel coupler from Monoprice that can be adjusted to whatever angle works for your space.

Buy the right-sized cables for your needs. Stop trying to stretch your cables inconveniently across the back of your TV while all of the other cables you have connected drape down to the floor. Get the right sized cables for the devices you want to connect. Not every console, Blu-ray player, or device connected to your TV is the same distance, so there's no reason to try and make a 3-foot HDMI cable reach everything, or coil up 10-foot HDMI cables on the floor. This is especially true for speaker cable.

Consider slim or kink-free cables. There's usually no reason to spend more on cabling than you need to, but if you catch your cables coiling up in strange ways or you have a number of thin cables that knot up in ways you don't like (like speaker wire, or optical audio cables), consider kink-free models with fabric sheaths over them. They may be more expensive, but they'll never knot. The downside is that you need to choose the right length, since coiling slack is a pain. If space is really at a premium or you use a cable channel that you run wires through, you might want to consider thin versions of your cables. Speaker cable is already as thin as it can get, but thinner HDMI cables are easily found, although they're at a price premium. If you like the cables you have, though, you can always shorten them.

Consider color-coding your cables. If you are willing to replace a bunch of your cables (or all of your cables), consider color coding them. You can save some money (since colors like red, blue, and yellow are almost always cheaper than black and white), and you'll never be confused about the device or type of cable you're looking at when you peek at the mass of cables behind your TV.

Making sure you have the right types of cables and the right cables for your space is important. Take a look behind your entertainment center now and see if you're inadvertently bending your HDMI cables at a strange angle, putting stress on optical, component, or composite connectors by pressing them against the wall or the back of your home theater, or worse, stressing the ports in the back of your TV, receiver, or game console because the cables are at strange angles. If you are, it's time to fix that before you do damage that can't be easily repaired.

Make the Most of Your Receiver, or Buy an HDMI Switch

It doesn't take much to be out of ports on the back of your TV. A couple of game consoles, a Blu-ray player, maybe an Apple TV or HTPC, and suddenly a TV that shipped with three or four ports is all full, and suddenly your new DVR or newest console addition has nowhere to go. Sometimes it's not a matter of just switching port types either—after all, who wants to downgrade from HDMI to component if you have the choice?

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If you have a good AV receiver (and we hope you do), you should have tons of additional ports for all sorts of devices. Many people make the mistake of using their receiver just for audio, or adding it to their home theater setup without rewiring everything to pass through it. If you can route HDMI or other connectors through your receiver, do it. You'll free up ports on the back of your TV for other devices, use fewer cable, keep the clutter down, and you may have more ports on the back of your receiver than you have on the back of your TV anyway.

If the back of your TV is just too cluttered anyway, we've shown you how to make the most of any spare ports you have. If you need more expansion options, buy an HDMI switch. They're not all alike, so do your homework before you drop your cash. You can find cheap ones that require you to manually toggle inputs every time you want to switch devices, or you can drop some cash and get ones that will auto-switch based on which device connected to it is active, work with your universal remote, and come with other useful features. The HDMI cables and switches forum at AVForums is a great place to do some research, and if you want some reliable suggestions, check out this episode of HD Nation for a few good models.

Separate Power from Everything Else

When I rewired my home theater cabinet, the first thing I made a point to do was separate out power from everything else. I wanted all of my power cables going in one direction and all of my audio and video cables going in another direction. It helped with cable management, but it also decreased the sheer bulk of cables I had to get my hands around if I needed to swap something out or test a connection.

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Grab yourself a few sturdy, plug-rich surge protectors (I'm a fan of the Belkin Pivot Plug—it's heavy, heavy duty, has more plugs than you'll probably need at once, and has a nice, long cable) or a few pass-throughs like these Power Strip Liberators, and separate out all of the things you need to be on all the time from the things that can be easily powered off. That way even if you have a device that prefers to stay on standby and never really powers off, you can save energy by flipping the switch on the surge protector.

Tie Down, Hide, and Organize Those Cables

Once you have the right cables, have your cables labeled, and have the right gear to make the most of your home entertainment center, the last step is to set it all back up as cleanly as possible. We have a whole guide to this step that walks you through laying out your cables by their endpoint so you'll make sure they always reach, using binder clips and other cable management tools to make sure your cables are hidden from view, coiling and zip-tying slack when you need to, and some gadget suggestions that can help conceal your cable clutter.

For example, you can buy surge protector "boxes" that have space for coiled cables and plenty of ventilation, or you can make your own. You could also hang pegboard on the back of your entertainment center to give your cables a place to mount, invest in some Velcro strips, or you can just give it all up and mount your TV to the wall and run everything inside the wall if that's an option where you live. I rent, so wall-mounting my gear isn't a great solution, but if you can hide your cables in the wall, that'll definitely keep them out of sight. That's still no reason not to label them and make sure they're not bent at odd angles, though.

Mix and match these as you see fit. None of them require a ton of effort, but you can, for example, disconnect and label everything without buying new color coded cables, and you can isolate power from everything else without buying an HDMI switch. Sure, it's easiest if you're starting from scratch and connecting everything at once, but you don't have to. Still, it's a good idea to take a little time to organize that mess behind your TV before you buy something you want to connect next, so you don't have to wait until you've organized everything just to plug in your shiny new PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.